Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/233

 “Here, godfather,” said Ursule, holding out this letter to him through an impulse of pride.

“Ah! my child!” cried the doctor, after having read the letter, “I am even more pleased than you are. The gentleman has, by this resolution, redeemed all his faults.”

After dinner, Savinien called upon the doctor, who was then walking with Ursule along the balustrade of the terrace by the river. The viscount had received his clothes from Paris, and the lover had not failed to enhance his natural advantages by as careful and elegant a dress as if it were a question of pleasing the beautiful, proud Comtesse de Kergarouët. When she saw him coming toward them from the steps, the poor little thing clasped her uncle’s arm just as if she were holding back from a precipice, and the doctor heard deep, muffled palpitations which made him shudder.

“Leave us, my child,” he said to his ward, who sat down on the steps of the Chinese pavilion after having allowed Savinien to take her hand, and kiss it respectfully.

“Monsieur, would you give this dear young girl to a naval captain?” said the young viscount to the doctor, in a low voice.

“No,” said Minoret, smiling, “we might have to wait too long; but—to a lieutenant.”

Tears of joy moistened the young man’s eyes, and he squeezed the old man’s hand very affectionately.

“Then I will go,” he replied, “and study and try